Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Monchengladbach are all keen to take the 22-year-old back to the Bundesliga, where he impressed in a season-long loan with Werder Bremen last term.

De Bruyne favours a move to Wolfsburg and the club’s sporting director, Klaus Allofs, was in London earlier this week for talks with Chelsea and De Bruyne’s agent.

But with the Blues keen to urgently reduce annual losses in light of Financial Fair Play, their asking price is proving too high for Wolfsburg, who will not pay over €20m for the Belgium international.

Wolfsburg currently lie fifth in the Bundesliga and De Bruyne has history with Allofs, who brought the former Genk star to Bremen last year.

Chelsea paid Genk just £7m (€8.3m) for De Bruyne in 2012 and the winger has made just six appearances for the Stamford Bridge club.